Hello,
My name is Nathan Pelonis, I am mainly interested in the biology of humans and animals particularly in space and general astrobiology. I am looking for a mentor or group of mentors that I can assist with research in this area. I am a junior at UCSD as a biology major with an intended minor in physics. If anyone has some projects that they would like some extra help with, I would like to have a conversation.
Thank you!
Hi Nathan @npelonis
One reason this post might not have gotten a heap of responses is Astrobiology usually is defined as “the evolution and distribution of life in the universe” — where as Space Biology is generally the fundamental mechanisms and discoveries of how living organisms respond/adapt and can thrive when exposed to the space travel environmental stressors . Have you see this paper Afshinnekoo et al 2020?
Also, you probably should join and attend the meetings of the Animal AWG, which is led by @paula6 to get on the agenda.
Have you perused all the ongoing projects in the “AWG Projects” category? You’d be welcome to join in any of the projects you’d think you’d be interested in. Feel free to DM @ whoever is leading those projects.
Also, have you seen the AWG Group Member Hub? I believe almost all ongoing projects are up-to-date with details and POCs in there. A couple AWGs are not quite leveraging this Forum fully yet, fyi.
Lastly, if interested specifically in Astrobio, I know @alexa.sadier and @fumimuratani have an interest in that domain
Cheers and thanks so much for posting 
-Ryan
Hello,
Thank you for your informative response! I will be sure to check out those resources to try and find some projects of interest! I am interested in both Space Biology and Astrobiology, but I did not know of this difference, that is very helpful clarification.
I will try to attend some meetings but I am currently working two jobs over this summer to try to pay off some debts. I will do my best though!
I am newer to this site so I am trying to get used to the resources, I really appreciate you helping me!
Sincerely,
Nathan Pelonis
My pleasure! You’re using the site correctly, but the real collaborations occur during the meetings 
Cheers
How exactly do we collaborate during the meetings? I will be attending the MultiOmicsAWG meeting this morning. I am a bit confused
Have you attended any AWG meetings yet? Attending meetings is the starting point, and this forum-space is a supplement to those AWG community meetings. Sometimes there are working meetings. Sometimes there are meetings with speakers on ideas for collaborations. Sometimes the meetings are pure scientific presentations. It varies.
Hello, I just attended one of the meetings this morning. I was just wondering how to do more collaborations outside of the meetings themselves. I really want to have something to do on the side research-wise because it interests me. Sorry for so many questions!
All good on the questions 
There are ongoing projects, which you can DM the project leads when looking at the projects here: AWG Projects - Open Science Data Repository AWG Community
Look up the leads in the Group member hub and DM them to ask to be involved: Open Science Data Repository AWG Community
Look up the leads and modeators and ask to introduce yourself at their next meeting About - Open Science Data Repository AWG Community
Hey, I’m a grad student at UAH doing Space Biology, I only learned about this program at my MS at UCF, but maybe this would be a good way to get involved next summer:
It’s an undergrad internship, I’ve heard good things about it!
Great share Amy! Indeed, a number of AWG members I believe did the SLSTP internship. Always amazing cohorts and excellent mentors
Thank you so much for the resource! I have a reminder set for when the application will open for the 2024 group, hopefully good things come from it!
Hello! We have a sub-group within Animal AWG, which is working on topics related to astrobiology… and presenting a talk and poster here:
“Space, Adaptation and Evolution”
https://awg.osdr.space/g/AnimalAWG
Also presented a talk in AWG Symposium 2022
My talk in this topic is starting around 4h02min in this YouTube… We are also working with group of scientists in Japan, working on plants as well.
Thank you for these resources! Is there any open spaces in the sub-group about astrobiology that I could find a space within? I would love to be apart of that!
Please send your e-mail address to me by direct message. I will add you to the sub-group Teams. Sub-group meeting is usually every 2nd and 4th Wednesdays, 11pm or 12 midnight in Japan time (your local time will be indicated in Microsoft TEAMS meeting invite).
@fumimuratani could you add that Astrobio/Evolution sub-group meeting here in the Forum?
When you “create a new topic” → gear wheel → create event → add time/date → add TEAMS mtg url → make Private → add AnimalAWG to selected groups → either add recurrence (or don’t if the same day:time of the month)
This goes for EVERY sub-group meeting too, within all AWGs Hence the detailed response, public
If the following subgroup leads and AWG leads could help by add their meetings in this Forum to the calendar, that would be awesome. Of course, if not AnimalAWG, make change the add to Plant, or ALSDA, or AIML, or whichever AWG for selection
@ben.sikes @james.casaletto @dr.richard.barker @jgong @borjabarbero @DirkNeefs @mattias.neset @abegum @svcostes @evartsb @ss.damianj @lauren.sanders @j.somsanith08 @AnuragSakharkar @robert.j.reynolds-2 @paula6 @katherine.j.baxter @nicholas.brereton @kirill @abegum @kjycheryl
I believe this helps answer that email about a Plant subgroup Richard & Cheryl Let me know if any questions
Thanks! Let me try… (give me some time… 
)
Thanks Masafumi, I obviously was able to add all the ‘main’ AWG meetings to the Forum calendar, but now I need to help all leads/coordinators get the subgroups into the Forum calendar. Sincerely appreciate it. Let me know if I can help more
Thank you for the tutorial Ryan
My honor! Hope it helps. A backup could be that I can just create subgroup meeting invites for anyone.
Also, if any subgroup invites get created, please let me know
